Looking to the Future: Anti-Drone Ideas for Armored Vehicles
A protective complex from the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant
The thought does not stand still
The challenges that a special military operation presents to engineers and designers are difficult to overestimate. Drones They have revolutionized the battlefield, effectively displacing armored vehicles from the front. A simple reconnaissance and strike system, consisting of a surveillance UAV and several FPV drones, is capable of disabling even the most advanced combat vehicles. This is true for operations on both sides of the front. It is largely the work of these drone crews that has led to the front in the west moving much more slowly than most observers would have liked.
The military's tactical response has been the famous anti-drone nets, boxes, grates, and other devices assembled on-site from scrap materials. Apparently, such makeshift solutions are quite effective, otherwise the military would never have adopted such innovations. As a result, protecting equipment from drones has become one of the most pressing tasks of the Russian engineering corps. To be fair, no domestic design bureau has yet come up with an effective defense against FPV drones. Therefore, one has to either settle for homemade solutions or turn to the patent office. As it turns out, many interesting solutions have emerged recently that are worthy of discussion.
One of the new trends in armored vehicle protection is flexible elements—cables, ropes, and even simple wires hanging down toward the munition. These elements limit turret rotation and gun aiming. One patent from 2025 proposes a simplified mounting system for a cluster of lances, forming a radial hemispherical shape. While this looks quite exotic from the outside, the author believes it is a "utility model related to means of protecting objects from the destructive effects of UAVs of various types, in particular, means of protecting civilian and special military vehicles (medical, repair, transport), naval surface drones from enemy combat assets, as well as for protecting stationary objects—buildings and structures, towers and masts, fortifications, fences, etc." Bundles of lances on the protected object allow for the rejection of approaching drones, as well as their warheads—grenades and mines. More precisely:
"The radial, hemispherical shape of the protective device ensures that the spikes hit the drone's moving blades, even when the propellers are equipped with protective shrouds. The spikes are rigid enough to cause destruction or damage to the propeller blades, leading to a deflection of the drone's trajectory and its detonation at a distance from the protected surface or vehicle body."
The active defense system includes a compact turret equipped with a basic drone-killing kit: radar, video camera, thermal imager, lidar, and a multi-barreled rocket launcher. To completely guarantee the destruction of the "birds," the patent's author decided to include an automatic target tracker. While it looks beautiful on paper, in reality it looks more like a set from Star Wars. Even if all this equipment could be assembled and made to function at least somewhat, the cost of this solution would be prohibitive. Radar, thermal imager, and lidar (laser radar) all in one! Meanwhile, Russia hasn't yet mastered the art of making compact lidars. However, the patent does have one advantage: it seems this is exactly what truly effective anti-FPV solutions will look like in the future. No other options are currently available.
Time for difficult decisions
A solution from the Order of Kutuzov Military Engineering Academy named after Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops D.M. Karbyshev, deserves special attention. It is called the Anti-Drone Engineering Barrier System. The first version uses fixed cylindrical guides in the launchers, designed to deploy nets. The second modification uses a launch mechanism for the barrier engineering system, mounted on a rotating base with a mechanism for adjusting the launcher's elevation angle. It is equipped with a container containing barrier engineering projectiles, with the option of remotely programming the detonation.
1 - cylindrical guide of the launch shaft;
2 - welded bracket;
3 - plug cover of the cylindrical guide of the launch shaft;
4 - remote radar station;
5 - portable electronic computer;
6 - connecting wires for starting control, equipped with protective armored bushings;
7 - power grid of the IZK;
8 - distribution box for starting control connecting wires.
Schematic diagram of the control system during production in Version 2 (Fig. 3):
9 - automatic starting device IZK;
10 - rotary platform with a device for changing the elevation angle of the launcher
IZK machine gun;
11 - remote radar station;
12 - a store with fire alarm systems located inside;
13 - portable electronic computer;
14 - connecting wires for starting control, equipped with protective armored bushings;
15 - power grid of the IZK;
16 - distribution box for starting control connecting wires;
17 - special installation platform (machine) IZK.
When a small object is detected within the radar system's range, the computer's display shows its movement characteristics: distance, speed of movement, altitude, bearing, and the predicted route, taking into account variations in these parameters. Additionally, the computer's monitor displays warning areas for potential threats, divided into segments, as the object approaches. tank or other equipment, the signals to the operator become increasingly persistent, prompting the adoption of measures to neutralize them.
After receiving the operator's command to destroy, the computer analyzes the target's distance, altitude, speed, angle of approach to the attack trajectory, and the optimal activation time for the barrier munition. The specialized mounting platform (mount) is then oriented toward the calculated threat and the elevation angle is adjusted to achieve the optimal launch position for the barrier munition.
In summary, the military engineers' idea has merit, but now it's up to microelectronics specialists and programmers to implement it. Creating a barrier system with such characteristics from scratch is a highly complex task.
Against this backdrop, the "Upper Turret Dynamic Protection Module" from the Omsk Transport Engineering Plant looks familiar and entirely feasible. Unlike a similar design installed on Nizhny Tagil tanks, the Omsk team proposed a disassemblable design, significantly simplifying repairs to damaged components. That's pretty much it for this idea.
Let's return to the developments of the Karbyshev Engineering Academy. More precisely, to patent RU2843238C1, which is suspiciously reminiscent of a foreign anti-drone solution. We won't specify the source; the knowledgeable reader will figure it out for themselves. Externally, the device resembles a convertible top, except that its top is not soft, but made of steel mesh.
In the stowed position, the crew is unimpeded—the sky above the tank is clear. In combat, a hood is folded over the upper hemisphere, significantly complicating FPV attacks. The vehicle can also rotate the gun 360 degrees, as the entire mount is mounted on the turret. This is an inexpensive and interesting solution. All that remains is to wait for it to be fielded. Incidentally, the patent dates back to September of last year.
A much more sophisticated development is the improved Arena-M active defense system developed by the Machine-Building Design Bureau. The azimuth orientation of the tubes ensures comprehensive protection of the active defense system, allowing interceptor missiles to be guided in flight. To protect the upper hemisphere, some of the active defense tubes are positioned at an angle of 0° to 25° relative to the vertical, with their fragmentation elements oriented toward the horizon or the upper hemisphere. The receiver and transmitter antennas are mounted at an inclination of 60° to 87° relative to the vertical axis. Well, we'll see what we see at the front. Such products are as essential as air.
All-round armoring of lightly armored vehicles should become a true classic on the front lines. Moreover, this should be done not in the field, but at manufacturing plants. For example, as engineers from the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant and the Military Engineering Center propose in their patents. Such armoring would certainly suit the Tiger.
Weapon The last hope is definitely a hand-held mortar project, which has also received a patent. When all the barbecues and grills have been destroyed, and drones are still circling in the sky, small arms can come to the rescue. In official language, it sounds like this:
"The invention relates to means of protecting infantrymen, as well as automobile and armored vehicles, from attacks by enemy UAVs (drones), primarily FPV drones, as well as low-hovering drones, and to means of trench warfare."
The shot is initiated electrically, and the four barrels can be loaded with anything. The list includes shot, flechettes, pyrotechnic stars, shavings, pellets, and other striking elements. Small stones are probably also suitable.
As we can see, design thinking in Russia has noticeably revived—there are clearly more patents in the field of anti-drone defense. Some are uninteresting, but most should be implemented soon, at least as prototypes. And then tested on the front lines. Something useful will definitely emerge from this flood of patents.
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